Random News: June 7, 2025

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s June 7, 2025, and it’s a Saturday. Good morning form a guy in a robe.

• A Pride Note…
• I want to talk about a man named Mark Bingham.
• On September 11, 2001, Bingham was a passenger onboard United Airlines Flight 93. 
• Along with fellow passengers Todd Beamer, Tom Burnett, and Jeremy Glick, Bingham formed and enacted the plan to retake the plane from the hijackers.
• Those fundamentalist terrorist pieces of shit had planned to use the plane as a bomb, flying straight into either the U.S. Capitol Building or the White House to destroy it. It had worked with two of the other jets they’d hijacked that day — hitting the World Trade Center, as you’re well aware.
• But due to the brave and selfless efforts of Bingham and the others, the plane instead crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania that day. All passengers on the aircraft died.
• Bingham was a big man. Six feet, four inches tall, and a muscular 225-pound build. That’s a typical physique for an NFL defensive back.
• And indeed, he’d been a star rugby player — a mercilessly difficult and violent sport. He was a tough motherfucking dude.
• And he was gay. What? He doesn’t fit the stereotype you have in mind for a gay man? A man tough and brave enough to knowingly sacrifice his life in this way?
• Allow me to burst your bubble. Gay men can be as strong and macho and rugged as any heterosexual guy you’ve ever met. You think of gay men as hairdressers and interior designers. But they’re also professional athletes, construction workers, cops, and mechanics.
• And in Mark’s case — as well as that of many members in all branches of our military — gay men help save the USA from terrorist takeover.
• While it’s of little solace, Bingham has since been recognized and memorialized for his heroism. The 2013 feature-length documentary “The Rugby Player” is about him, and his efforts were lauded in films “The Flight That Fought Back,” ”United 93,” and “Flight 93.”
• And in her song “Tuesday Morning,” Melissa Etheridge paid tribute to Bingham, singing…
• “And the things you might take for granted / Your inalienable rights / Some might chose to deny him / Even though he gave his life / Can you live with yourself / In the land of the free / And make him less of a hero / Than the other three / Well, it might begin to change ya / In a field in Pennsylvania.”
• Let’s do some news.
• From the Immigration Desk…
• Yesterday, it was announced that Kilmar Abrego Garcia is being returned to the USA. But hold off on any celebrations.
• Abrego Garcia is the guy whose mistaken deportation to El Salvador became a political flashpoint in the Dump administration’s stepped-up immigration enforcement.
• But now Dump is bringing him back to face criminal charges related to what Dump’s team claims was a massive human smuggling operation that brought immigrants into the country illegally.
• Attorney General Pam Bondi — whom I can’t trust any further than I could throw her — reported that a grand jury found that he made multiple trips as part of a ring that trafficked guns, drugs, children, and women.
• Look… all I ask for these people is a fair shot, with the due process they merit as required in our Constitution. So Abrego Garcia will have his day in court.
• He is expected to be prosecuted in the U.S. and, if convicted, will be returned to his home country in El Salvador at the conclusion of the case.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, the Supreme Court (of supreme assholes, most of the time) halted lower court orders that required the White House's Department of Government Efficiency to turn over information to a government watchdog group as part of a lawsuit that tests whether Dump's cost-cutting task force has to comply with federal public records law.
• Yup. They get to keep that data. What they actually do with it is anyone’s guess. But one of DOGE’s big goals has been to kill Social Security, which Elon Musk calls a “Ponzi scheme.”
• The ruling gives DOGE full access to Social Security systems containing personal data on nearly every American. If you have a Social Security number, they now have your info.
• The order from the high court clears DOGE for now from having to turn over records related to its work and personnel, and keeps Amy Gleason — the person who no one knows and yet is identified as its acting administrator — from having to answer questions at a deposition. 
• Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
• Jackson’s dissent said the court’s action creates “grave privacy risks” for millions of Americans by giving “unfettered data access to DOGE regardless — despite its failure to show any need or any interest in complying with existing privacy safeguards, and all before we know for sure whether federal law countenances such access.”
• Sigh.
• So, the Supreme Court sent the case back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for more proceedings.
• Chief Justice John Roberts had already paused the district court's order last month, which allowed the Supreme Court more time to consider Dumpy's bid for emergency relief.
• A district judge had ordered DOGE to turn over documents to the group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, by June 3, and for Gleason's deposition to be completed by June 13.
• Now? Nope.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday the immigration battle hit close to home for all of us in the greater Los Angeles area.
• It started early in the day, when Dump’s ICE gestapo targeted several locations, including a Home Depot in the Westlake District, an apparel store in the Fashion District, and a clothing warehouse in South Los Angeles.
• They arrived in caravans of unmarked military-style vehicles and vans loaded with ICE agents in their now-familiar camo gear and masks, with no identifying badges.
• In total, there were at least seven immigration raids held across the region yesterday, many of them at workplaces, including a doughnut shop.
• So when they tell you that they’re targeting gangsters and violent criminals, note that nearly everyone harassed, detained, or arrested yesterday were hard working people making contributions to our society.
• The raids were random sweeps conducted without warrants, and those arrested were simply racially profiled. if you were brown, they were grabbing you.
• Dozens of people were taken into custody during the raids, but the folks in LA don’t just lie down and accept this level of tyranny. They stood their ground.
• From ordinary citizens to labor unions to immigrant rights groups, Los Angelenos have braced for this type of action for months.
• One of them was David Huerta, the president of California’s largest labor union, the Service Employees International Union California (SEIU). SEIU has about two million members, representing workers in healthcare, public sector, and property services.
• Huerta was injured during the melee with ICE, having been violently knocked down and pepper-sprayed. Mayor Karen Bass confirmed that the labor union president was under ICE detention.
• Bass also issued a statement condemning the immigration raids, saying, "these tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city."
• A note: both LAPD and the LA County Sheriff’s Department quickly issued statements making it clear that they were not involved in (and not notified about) the raids.
• But then last night, there was a tense confrontation with protesters in downtown Los Angeles who were enraged by the ICE raids earlier in the day.
• Helmeted police in riot gear lined up on a downtown street wielding batons and tear gas rifles. Once demonstrators were told to disperse after their protest was called an “illegal assembly” after nightfall, arrests began.
• And that’s where things stand as of now.
• One week from today, on Saturday June 14, I’ll be joining thousands of people locally (and millions more across the country) for the “No Kings” Nationwide Day of Defiance.
• And I encourage each of you who will be taking part in this day of action — with well over 1,000 events scheduled in all 50 US states — to remain peaceful and not give authorities any excuse to stop your freedom to assemble, per our Constitution.
• I will say that after yesterday’s “Battle of Los Angeles” — which may be ongoing — the mood of anger about Dump and his treatment of people in this country has reached a more palpable level.
• And that is an attitude we’ll take with us when we hit the streets next Saturday.
• Link in the comments, for those of you who are brave enough to join us in solidarity next Saturday.
• Oh, and a relevant side note: one of the “No Kings” events is being held in the same vicinity as Dump’s birthday parade with the U.S. Army. The protestors will be marching down 16th Street in D.C. to within sight of the White House while the tanks roll by.
• Interesting.
• For now, moving on.
• They caught Grant Hardin, that piece of shit former police chief who escaped from jail a couple of weeks ago, where he’d been serving a 50-year sentence for murder and rape.
• How bad is this former cop? HBO’s documentary about him was titled "Devil in the Ozarks,” if that tells you anything.
• Hopefully they can keep him locked up where he belongs for the rest of his pathetic life. I hope he’s miserable the whole time.
• And now, The Weather: “The Girl Who Sold Her Face” by yeule
• To anyone I have yet to personally respond to, thanks again for all the excellent birthday greetings I received yesterday.
• Birthdays are bizarre. I neither dread them nor welcome them, but just accept the unavoidable fact that I’m sitting on a rock in space going around a star, and there’s such a thing as time in our universe, pulling you unwillingly in one direction, and entropy increases, and nothing lasts forever — possibly not even the universe itself.
• Where was I?
• Oh yes. The point is to enjoy and appreciate things that you can while you can. I think that’s the point.
• You can ask things like “Why are we here?” and “Where is here?” and “What is our purpose?” and many other questions, but if you’re having a good time and helping others be happy, I really can’t find any fault in your worldview.
• What more could you ask for than that?
• I’ll end this shallow dive into philosophy with a quote from Epicurus, written around 2300 years ago.
• "When we say that pleasure is the end and aim, we do not mean the pleasures of the prodigal or the pleasures of sensuality, as we are understood to do, by some, through ignorance, prejudice or willful misrepresentation. By pleasure, we mean the absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the soul. It is not by an unbroken succession of drinking bouts and of revelry, not by sexual lust, nor the enjoyment of fish, and other delicacies of a luxurious table, which produce a pleasant life; it is sober reasoning, searching out the grounds of every choice and avoidance, and banishing those beliefs through which the greatest tumults take possession of the soul."
• Fuckin’ A right. That’s what I’m talking about.
• Let’s do a chart.
• We are going back 56 years, straight to the day after I was born. Seems appropriate.
• Note: I am super happy with this top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for June 7, 1969. I could have been born to a worse soundtrack. Way, way worse.
• 1. Get Back (The Beatles With Billy Preston). 2. Love (Can Make You Happy) (Mercy). 3. Grazing In The Grass (The Friends Of Distinction). 4. Oh Happy Day (The Edwin Hawkins' Singers Featuring Dorothy Combs Morrison). 5. Bad Moon Rising (Creedence Clearwater Revival). 6. In The Ghetto (Elvis Presley). 7. Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In (The 5th Dimension). 8. Love Theme From Romeo & Juliet (Henry Mancini And His Orchestra). 9. These Eyes (The Guess Who). 10. Too Busy Thinking About My Baby (Marvin Gaye). 11.  Gitarzan (Ray Stevens). 12. Atlantis (Donovan). 13. Hair (The Cowsills). 14. One (Three Dog Night). 15. More Today Than Yesterday (Spiral Starecase). 16. Goodbye (Mary Hopkin). 17. Morning Girl (The Neon Philharmonic). 18. Israelites (Desmond Dekker And The Aces). 19. It's Your Thing (The Isley Brothers). 20. The Boxer (Simon & Garfunkel).
• From the Sports Desk… the Stanley Cup finals remains thrilling. Last night’s Game 2 saw the Panthers defeating the Oilers 5-4 in double overtime.
• The finals series is tied 1-1.
• And some breaking Sports Desk news… American tennis player Coco Gauff has defeated Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka to claim her first French Open title.
She came from behind to win 6-7, 6-2, 6-4.
• Today in history… Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Tordesillas which divides the New World between the two countries (1494). Louis XIV is crowned King of France (1654). Richard Henry Lee presents the "Lee Resolution" to the Continental Congress, leading to the United States Declaration of Independence (1776). The United States and the United Kingdom agree in the Lyons–Seward Treaty to suppress the African slave trade (1862). Homer Plessy is arrested for refusing to leave his seat in the "whites-only" car of a train; he lost the resulting court case, Plessy v. Ferguson (1892). Allied soldiers detonate a series of mines underneath German trenches at Messines Ridge, killing 10,000 German troops (1917). The Douglas DC-4E makes its first test flight (1938). The United Kingdom's BBC returns to broadcasting its television service, which has been off air for seven years because of World War II (1946). The Supreme Court of the United States hands down its decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, prohibiting the states from criminalizing the use of contraception by married couples (1965). The United States Supreme Court overturns the conviction of Paul Cohen for disturbing the peace, setting the precedent that vulgar writing is protected under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution (1971). Priscilla Presley opens Graceland to the public (1982). Mount Pinatubo erupts, generating an ash column 4.3 miles high (1991). The United Nations defines the Blue Line as the border between Israel and Lebanon (2000).
• June 7 is the birthday of fashion designer Beau Brummell (1778), Paul Gauguin (1848), Hungary prime minister Imre Nagy (1896), actress Jessica Tandy (1909), poet Gwendolyn Brooks (1917), actor/singer Dean Martin (1917), singer Tom Jones (1940), guitarist Clarence White (1944), MLB player Thurman Munson (1947), actor Liam Neeson (1952), singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/actor Prince (1958), US VP Mike Pence (1959), actor Lance Reddick (1962), guitarist Dave Navarro (1967), NBA player Allen Iverson (1975), actor/screenwriter Bill Hader (1978), tennis player Anna Kournikova (1981), actor Michael Cera (1988), rapper Iggy Azalea (1990), rapper Fetty Wap (1991), and NFL player Christian McCaffrey (1996).

That is plenty of stuff to think about for now. Remember to make plans for next Saturday, June 14. We’re not gonna take this shit. Stand the fuck up. Gird your loins. Saddle up. Lock and load. And for the moment, enjoy your day.